Proposed environmental justice ordinance concerns council and mayor

Tuesday

Nov 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Jon Mitchell wants the City Council to address concerns voiced by members of the business community regarding a proposed environmental justice city ordinance, even as the council wants to know what the mayor thinks.

ARIEL WITTENBERG

NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Jon Mitchell wants the City Council to address concerns voiced by members of the business community regarding a proposed environmental justice city ordinance, even as the council wants to know what the mayor thinks.

The ordinance, which would establish an environmental justice permitting process in the city, was presented to the City Council in July by Citizens Leading Environmental Action Network (CLEAN).

Under the ordinance, developers would be required to demonstrate that their facilities would not cause health problems for surrounding communities in order to be allowed to build in New Bedford. It would also establish an "environmental justice examiner" who would be required to consider not only the environmental and health impacts of an individual project but the cumulative effect of industrial facilities in the planned project's neighborhood, as well.

The working theory of the proposed ordinance is that businesses that have had adverse effects on human health and the environment have historically had a disproportionate effect on lower-income and minority neighborhoods of the city.

New Bedford's business community has been strongly opposed to the ordinance, with members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Park voicing their dislike of the proposal at an Oct. 23 City Council hearing on the issue.

"The intentions of the proponents of environmental justice permitting requirement are good but the problem is that (this) sort of requirement doesn't exist in any other cities or towns we compete with in the region.

"It would put us at a severe disadvantage," Davis said.

He added that the Business Park has its own environmental and nuisance regulations that its businesses must follow. Davis said the park self-polices, making the city ordinance unnecessary. None of the 30 companies that have moved to the park since he began work there in 1998 have caused any environmental nuisances, and the park has turned away 40 companies due to environmental concerns, according to Davis.

Following the Oct. 23 hearing at which members of the city's business community voiced heavy opposition to the ordinance, the City Council decided to ask the mayor for his opinion on the issue before deciding whether to pass it, City Council President Steve Martins said.

"We just had no idea how the mayor feels about the ordinance, so we decided to ask so that we can make whatever changes he wants before we vote on it," Martins said. "We want to do what we can to prevent from signing off on it only to have the mayor veto it."

Martins said such a tactic was "not unusual" and that "we always do this if it affects the city's economic development."

"We just want to make sure we do our homework," he said.

In an email to The Standard Times, Mitchell's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Treadup, said the mayor "thinks it is important" that the council address testimony it has heard from local business groups "in any measure it might craft for his consideration."

CLEAN President Eddie Johnson said that organization "has a great relationship with City Council" but "where the relationship fails is with the mayor."

Johnson said "CLEAN didn't ignore environmental justice for all the years the city was being contaminated, the city did. Now it's up to the city to make it right."